Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1985, Page 65
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the first time by David Laing in 1855 ;20 but the second article
(variously known as the “Genealogy,” the “Diploma” or the “Deduc-
tion” of the Orkney earls21) had been printed, as already mentioned,
as early as 1700 and had subsequently been reproduced in whole or in
part in no less than three publications of the second half of the eight-
eenth and the first half of the nineteenth century.22 In the autumn of
1849 Munch came to Scotland in search of new materials for the
history of Norway; he at once made contact with Laing, who accompa-
nied him on an excursion to Staffa and Iona,23 and immediately there-
after he set out alone on a journey to the Orkneys, where he stayed for
three weeks and met the antiquarian George Petrie.24 Having spent
the months of November and December in Edinburgh, he returned to
Norway by way of Denmark, taking with him transcripts of the first
three articles in the Dalhousie manuscript and a facsimile of its hand-
writing. This material formed the basis of a publication which
appeared already the following summer25 and which included, apart
from the Genealogy of the Orkney earls (now printed for the fifth
time), the editio princeps of the first and third articles in the manu-
script; these, as can be seen from the complete inventory of contents
on p. 67 below, were (a) the Historia Norvegiae, a short Latin chroni-
cle apparently composed by a Norwegian clerk in the second half of
the twelfth century (art. 1), and (b) a list of the kings of Norway
20 Cf. n. 3 above.
21 For the most recent analysis of this document see Barbara E. Crawford, “The
Fifteenth-Century ‘Genealogy of the Earls of Orkney’ and its Reflection of the Con-
temporary Political and Cultural Situation in the Earldom,” Mediaeval Scandinavia 10
(1977), 156-78.
22 Orkneyinga saga sive Historia Orcadensium... edidit Jonas Jonæus (Hafniæ, 1780),
pp. 545-53; George Barry, The History of the Orkney Islands: in which is comprehended
an Account of their Present as well as their Ancient State... (Edinburgh, 1805), pp. 395-
404, Appendix no. II; extract in Cosmo Innes (ed.), Liber Insule missarum: abbacie
canonicorum regularium... de Inchaffery registrum vetus, Bannatyne Club 85 (Edin-
burgh, 1847), pp. lii-lvi, “Appendix to the Preface” no. 38.
23 Cf. the narrative in P. A. Munch, Samlede Afhandlinger, ed. Gustav Storm, III
(Christiania, 1875), pp. 27-52, repr. from Norske Folke-Kalender for 1852 (Christiania,
1851), pp. 17-42.
24 Cf. Samlede Afhandlinger III, 52-79, repr. from Norske Folke-Kalender for 1853
(Christiania, 1852), pp. 8-34.
25 Symbolæ (n. 2 above); issued by the University of Christiania on 8 June 1850 as
part of the official invitation to an academic ceremony to be held later in the month.